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As Trump tweeted up his coup "Twitter relished [1]

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Date: 2022-07-13

After the courts threw out the Trump Campaign’s 60 failed election lawsuits, and a mass resignation thwarted Trump’s efforts to enlist the DOJ in his crusade to cling to power, and the military wouldn’t go along with Trump’s invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, Trump turned to whipping up a violent mob on Twitter. And Twitter went along and became an instrumental element of Donald Trump’s last ditch plan to cling to power.

THIS EXCHANGE STARTS AT 1:08:47

JAMIE RASKIN: In that clip, you heard one of Trump's supporters predict a red wedding, which is a pop culture reference to mass slaughter. But the point is that Trump's call to Washington reverberated powerfully and pervasively online. The committee has interviewed a former Twitter employee, who explained the effect that Trump had on the Twitter platform.

This employee was on the team responsible for platform and content moderation policies on Twitter throughout 2020 and 2021. The employee testified that Twitter considered adopting a stricter content moderation policy after President Trump told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by from the lectern at the September 29th presidential debate, but Twitter chose not to act.

Here's the former employee, whose voice has been obscured to protect their identity, discussing Trump's stand back and stand by comment and the effect it had. [Begin videotape]

UNKNOWN: My concern was that the former president, for seemingly the first time, was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives. We had not seen that sort of direct communication before, and that concerned me.

INVESTIGATER: So, just to clarify further, you were worried, others at Twitter were worried, that the president might use your platform to speak directly to folks who might be incited to violence?

UNKNOWN: Yes. I believe that Twitter ed in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former president, and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem.

INVESTIGATER: If President Trump were anyone else, would it have taken until January 2021 for him to be suspended?

UNKNOWN: Absolutely not. If Donald — if former President Donald Trump were any other user on Twitter, he would have been permanently suspended a very long time ago. [End videotape]

JAMIE RASKIN: Despite these grave concerns, Trump remained on the platform completely unchecked. Then came the December 19 tweet, and everything it inspired. Indeed — [Begin videotape]

UNKNOWN: It was — it felt as if — if a mob was being organized, and they were gathering together their weaponry and their logic and their reasoning behind why they were prepared to fight. Prior to December 19th, again, it was — it was vague. It was — it was nonspecific but very clear that individuals were ready, willing, and able to take up arms.

After this tweet on December 19th, again, it became clear not only were these individuals ready and willing, but the leader of their cause was asking them to join him in this cause and in fighting for this cause in DC on January 6th as well. I will also say what shocked me was the responses to these tweets, right?

So, these were — a lot of the locked and loaded, stand back, stand by, those tweets were in response to Donald Trump saying things like this, right? So, there would be a response that said big protest in DC on January 6th, be there, be wild, and someone would respond and say I'm locked and loaded and ready for civil war part two, right?

I very much believe that Donald Trump posting this tweet on December 19th was essentially staking flag in DC on January 6th for his supporters to come and rally. And you were concerned about the potential for this gathering becoming violent? Absolutely. [End videotape]

JAMIE RASKIN: Indeed, many of Trump's followers took to social media to declare that they were ready to answer Trump's call. One user asked is the 6th D-Day? Is that why Trump wants everyone there? Another asserted Trump just told us all to come armed. Fucking A, this is happening. A third took it even further. It will be wild means we need volunteers for the firing squad.

[END]
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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/13/2110059/-As-Trump-tweeted-up-his-coup-Twitter-relished-that-they-were-the-favorite-of-president

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